Since you are talking milspec, I assume you are using FOSI. You say the
DTD only allows caution within a step to occur between the step tag and
the para tag, yet your example shows the caution occurring inline after
the step text. What is the actual format of the caution itself supposed
to be?
If you posted some FOSI code for the step2 e-i-c and the caution e-i-c,
that might help. Since the step3 isn't affected by this, are there
separate e-i-c's for caution within step3 and caution within step2?
Posting the e-i-c for step3 might help, also.